This invention relates to user interfaces which permit the use of pronouns and, more particularly, to a method and system for disambiguation of pronouns used in a user interface.
In a voice user interface, such as a voice personal assistant with an address book, it is often convenient to allow the user to use pronouns. For example, after the user has listened to a message from John Jones, he should be able to say “call him back,” in order to return the call. However, the use of pronouns introduces the difficulty that the entries (e.g. people and organizations) in the user's address book may be male, female, or corporations, such that the pronouns him, her, it, and them are possible inputs by the user in a given interaction.
One method of processing input containing pronouns is to allow the user to use pronouns indiscriminately. In this method, all pronouns are allowed and equivalent in the grammar or user response and the system assumes that the user will use the pronoun that is appropriate. Even if the user does not use the right pronoun, the pronoun equivalency will probably result in the system performing the correct action (the action the user intended). This is the method most systems use today.
However, in these prior art systems, the system is receiving (and the user is speaking) information that is essentially being disregarded. With the problems that exist with speech recognition today, even this small amount of information could help to improve recognition. It should also be noted that in some cases (common first names, some company names), it is easy to select a pronoun for a given name, but in other cases (the proverbial boy named Sue, or more common names like Jan, Jordan, Randy, Sandy and Shelly) it is quite likely to be incorrect. This means that if the system assigns a gender to each possible entry based on the noun identifier or name provider, the gender may be inappropriate. In this case, it is not just a grammatical issue; the system is more difficult to use, as it requires the user to learn an assigned “gender” which may have little basis in reality.
Some programs allow the user to provide gender-indicating information, for example a title like Mr. or Mrs. However, not all programs allow (or require) users to specify a title and those that do typically also accept titles (e.g. Dr., Hon., or Gen.) that are gender-neutral. In addition, it is not uncommon for a user to be unaware of the gender of a person in their address book, particularly if all of their communication has been via email or other written correspondence.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved user interface.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and system for using pronouns in a user interface.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and system for disambiguating the use of pronouns in a user interface.